23,000 Californians Join Conversation About Defeating Proposition 23CREDO Action Joins the Sierra Club on Call to Educate, Activate Broad Community of Californians to Stand Against Proposition 23

(LOS ANGELES, CA)-- The Sierra Club and CREDO Action hosted a conference call Monday evening to discuss the No on Proposition 23 campaign with Californians, who will be voting on the measure on November 2. More than 23,000 people joined the call to hear Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune and CREDO Action president and co-founder Michael Kieschnick discuss the dirty energy initiative and how the Sierra Club and CREDO Action will be working to defeat Proposition 23 this fall.

"This November, voters will have a chance to decide if we will continue to fight climate change, or if we are going to allow out-of-state oil companies to undermine California law," Brune told callers. "If California is going to lead our country towards a clean energy future, we have to defeat Proposition 23."

Proposition 23 would effectively kill the bipartisan legislation supported throughout California that will clean up air quality and continue making California a global leader in combating climate change by creating a market for clean, renewable energy. By trying to undermine California’s 2006 “Global Warming Solutions Act,” Texas oil companies and other dirty energy interests are jeopardizing the health and safety of California families. To date, oil interests have donated nearly $8,000,000, or roughly 97% of the money behind Proposition 23; and three out-of-state companies (Valero, Tesoro and Koch Industries) have donated 80% of the money behind the dirty energy initiative.

"Proposition 23 is backed by Big Texas Oil companies and billionaire climate science-deniers who are seeking to undermine California law so they can keep profiting from their pollution,"said Kieschnick. "It is incredibly important that people know how they can help defeat this deceptive ballot initiative."

Monday’s conference call launched the Sierra Club effort against Proposition 23, which will educate and engage California voters in the upcoming election. The Sierra Club and CREDO have set up offices around California to help coordinate the massive "get out the vote" effort in support of the campaign against Proposition 23 and will contact hundreds of thousands of voters between now and Election Day to ensure Californians know what is at stake in this election.

"The sheer volume of people who gave up part of their evening to participate on this call is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Californians who want to protect our state’s progress fighting climate change,” Brune said. "I am confident that Californians are going to stand up for clean energy development and against Texas oil companies on Election Day. We are all going to work hard to make sure California can continue leading the charge toward a clean energy future in America."

The Sierra Club is America's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, with more than 1.3 million members and supporters nationwide. The Sierra Club got its start in California more than a century ago and is still very active in this state with more than 150,000 members, 13 chapters, and its national headquarters in California.